After months of planning, and days spent setting up, the first furniture sale in the remote community of Santa Teresa sold out in a flash.

With no furniture shop closer than Alice Springs, 80 kilometres away up a rough dirt road, the arrival of a large truck packed with beds and sofas caused a lot of excitement.

Long before the temporary store opened its gates at 9am yesterday morning, people were eyeing off the bulky items sitting in the yard outside.

The truck was organised and staffed by a Salvation Army team, and filled with items from Adelaide, before being driven the more than 1500 kilometres to Santa Teresa.

Team leader Denis White said the organisation had been running trips like this one into the APY lands in South Australia for six years, but this is the first time they've visited the Northern Territory.

He says one of the biggest challenges is packing the truck so that nothing breaks, and so they can still get as much in as is humanly possible.

"We don't waste any space - all the drawers are filled with shoes or cutlery, or pillows in the cupboards or wardrobes.

"I went over the scales on this one and I've actually brought 6.3 tonnes of second hand items - but when you unpack it and it spreads out, I don't think I could ever fit it back in!"

Local woman Annie Young was involved in inviting the truck to the community, and she says she's happy with the result.

"It's good for the community, because people here don't have cars to get to town [and bring things back] - we need a big truck or maybe trailer.

"It's really, really hard, to get those kinds of things - it has been for a long time.

"I'd like to see [this] happening more."

Despite the big truckload, demand for furniture was so large that many missed out - even Annie.

But she's not complaining.

"The only thing I got was a beanie and a bracelet - that's good enough for me."